KALAMAZOO, Mich. — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), as well as the National Weather Service (NWS), could be cut by nearly 30% if the proposed budget for fiscal year 2026 is approved.
All of the living former NWS directors recently came together to write a letter to the American people regarding their concerns about these potential cuts.
Hundreds of probationary employees were already fired earlier this year.
The former NWS directors fear that if more are let go, some offices may be so understaffed that there will be a needless loss of life.
“The initial release of the new employees was something that was very unsettling to all of us,” Louis Uccellini, a former NWS director, said. “In fact, it was the main motivating point that got five of us, five former directors of the National Weather Service, together to write that open letter.”
Uccellini said that getting rid of more people and resources will make matters worse.
“That increases the concern and it increases the risk,” Uccellini explained. “Nobody can predict when the rubber band will break. You can pull it, you can pull it, you can pull it, and the one time it breaks, it breaks. It’s done.”
NWS employees have to work 24/7, 365 days a year to uphold their mission of protecting life and property.
One concern is that staff will be stretched too thin to handle busy weather days.
“What happens if you have a severe weather event and a flash flood event going on at the same time,” Uccellini said. “Those are two different forecast processes. That’s where you get into a risk factor that I think is unacceptable because you’re going to miss something.”
One of the areas inside NOAA that would be hardest hit is the research branch. They are testing new technology to improve forecast accuracy down the road.
Without those researchers, the responsibility would be passed onto other meteorologists.
“How are they going to try to keep going with respect to today’s weather and at the same time be part of the team that’s assessing and testing all the new technology advances and science advances that are still on the horizon,” Uccellini explained.
The work of these researchers have saved many lives.
As they learn more about steering patterns for hurricanes or what makes tropical cyclones rapidly intensify, that knowledge is put into weather models to allow for a more accurate forecast in the future.
“I would point out that the improvements in the hurricane forecast over the past 10 or 15 years have been astounding, both in track and now intensity,” Uccellini said. “People are preparing for potential hurricanes before they even form. So, it’s something that we feel very strongly about. We need that kind of connectivity not only to deal with today’s forecast challenges, but work towards the future.”
Uccellini told News Channel 3 that some weather models have recently seen a decline in accuracy and are not reaching the scores that the weather service wants to see.
While it is too early to tell what the exact cause is, it correlates pretty well with when some offices stopped releasing weather balloons due to staffing issues.
